It is commonly found to be desirable to provide recessed lighting fixtures in inclined or sloped ceilings. Illustrative of the type of fixtures which have been proposed is that illustrated and described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,729,080. In this patent, a conically flared-out incandescent lamp is threaded into a socket mounted inside the top of a cylindrical housing. The head of the lamp is surrounded by a baffle which extends downwardly below the lamp to the ceiling with its lower end terminating at an angle relative to the housing axis, which angle coincides with the slope angle of the ceiling. The purpose of this extended baffle is to absorb light and eliminate glare, with the light being directed downwardly along the axis of the cylindrical housing.
A problem with the fixture of this patent is that the angle at which the light is directed into the room space below the ceiling is not variable. In addition, because the baffle extends for a substantial distance between the head of the lamp and the ceiling opening, much of the light which is emanated from the lamp is absorbed by the baffle and never reaches the room space below the ceiling. In addition, the baffle arrangement of the patent presents certain difficulties in mounting the fixture due to the necessity of bringing the two parts of the baffle together, spring clipping them into position and suspending them from the upper housing by tension springs.
What has been needed is a simple fixture which can be slipped into a housing in a sloped ceiling opening with a lamp which can be screwed into a free-wired socket, and the lamp pivotally mounted so that its light may be directed at a plurality of angles relative to the ceiling.